Election Night Trivia

I voted early this year. Chuck and I went together to the courthouse and cast our votes. 

Here we are sporting our voting stickers.

Certain races were easy choices. There was one race where I wavered back and forth several times after my vote was already cast. It seems so important to make that one vote count, right? Especially this year.

I did kind of miss being able to vote on election day. Since we are rural, voting means driving out to the lake shelter house and meeting the neighbors and catching up on their news. We talk about how our aging family members are doing, what the crops are like, the weather, and what we've been thinking about...if there isn't much of a line. If there is a line, which is rare, then warm greetings and smiles are exchanged without much conversation.

I always wonder if my neighbors would like me as much if they knew how I voted. Isn't that crazy?

So anyway, I haven't thought about the election nearly as much today, which is good, since I was losing sleep over it last week.

******

Next is kind of a silly topic, but when I need to post every day, silly topics are going to come up. 

Like yesterday with the shopping stuff...

I'm trying to keep up with training Fritz every day. My goal is to someday be able to take him out off leash and have him see a squirrel, start running, hear me call his name, and turn immediately to run as fast as he can back to me.

I know, I can dream, right?

But every day we play a game designed by a dog trainer to get closer to that goal.

Today the game was called Cookies in the Corner.

We've played this in the house several times but not in the back yard.

The set up is to have some good treats. 

I needed large ones, so Fritz could easily find them in the grass.

You have the dog near you,

toss a treat near a corner of the yard, or room,

tell the dog to "Get it!"

and then take off running the other direction while calling his name.

This sequence is a partial set up to the squirrel recall.

The dog has permission to get the treat, which is important because the dog is learning only to go after things with permission.

Then he is running away from you while you call him, so he has to turn quickly.

He sees you running away which triggers his prey drive in your favor,

and he comes running full speed to you,

whereupon he gets another great treat and a lot of praise and attention.

It went well. He was excited and responsive, and I got some much needed exercise running across the back yard.

The other thing Fritz has to learn right now is how to allow himself to be groomed without squirming or moaning. So tonight I got him to jump on a platform, stay in a standing position, and he let me brush him out.

We took it in bits, but he's come a long way from when we started. I think by his appointment in early December, he will be a model dog.